Poetry Day-Love That Dog

Because my boy started writing poems age one,
spoke through poetry age two,
(part of why we thought "gifted" instead of autism)*
and read all of Marmion age eight
(understood-not so much I think)
I am always on the qui vive for books that will
expand that liking into new areas of 
comprehension for him.
So when I saw that amazing book blogger,
http://www.pragmaticmom.com,
listed young adult books written in poems,
I was elated.
Alas, no one apparently writes in rhymed 
verse any more and the subjects of most
were too complex and emotionally fraught
for my son to deal with, but Love that Dog
is a charmer.
A poetic journal by a boy named Jack, he
writes his (initially reluctant) responses to
poetry class and "finds his voice"
(trite but true). The story builds to the point
when he writes a poem about the death of
his dog (I cried, my son did not).
The best part for me was that I could read
the poems in the back and my son could
read Jack's responses. This imitated
a typical school interaction in a way I
rarely get to model. The best part for
my son? There were dates for each of
Jack's entries. Here is his review:

"This is about a boy named Jack.

Jack loved his dog.

The dog had a funny name.

His name was Sky.

His poem was like,“Love that Boy” except the poem was called, “Love that Dog.”

One poem called “The Apple” kept saying words like “apple”, and was in an apple.

I liked the poem “Street Music.”

My favorite part was the dates." 

(Yes, that is a Steig dog on the cover. Creech won a Newbery, she gets Steig if she wants Steig)

-Spectrum Mom
* I should mention we now think "gifted" and "autism"
they frequently come coupled.